Chennai: Renowned singer Vani Jayaram has breathed her last at her residence in Chennai after the President awarded her Padma Bhushan.
He was 78 years old. The cause of his death is still unknown.
One of the immortal voices of the South Indian film industry, Vani Jayaram has sung songs in 19 languages. He lived in his house in Hadaus Road, Chennai. Her husband Jayaram passed away in 2018. Since then, he lived alone.
Vani Jayaram has won three National Awards and has sung more than 10,000 songs in 19 languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Gujarati, Odia, Marathi, Haryanvi, Assamese, Tulu and Bengali. He has won state government awards from Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
Born in Kalaivani, Vellore into a traditional Tamil Iyengar family of classical musicians, Jayaram was initiated into the world of music by Ranga Ramanuja Iyengar and later by Cuddalore Srinivasa Iyengar, TR Balasubrahmanyan and RS Mani.
He was employed by the State Bank of India and left the job after he started training for Hindustani music under Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan of Patiala Gharana. Vani Jayaram was considered one of the few South Indian singers who had deep knowledge in Hindustani classical music and could sing Hindi, Gujarati and Haryanvi songs.
His first music album was composed by Vasant Desai with Kumar Gandharva.
Vani Jayaram, a very accomplished musician, was in tune with the old music directors and the new generation. He was a favorite of both Ilayaraja and AR Rahman.
